EOGHAN O’Connell believes the Barnsley team he recently joined is ‘not far off’ keeping regular clean sheets.
The 30-year-old Irish defender joined earlier this month as a free agent, having left Wrexham in September but, because he left outside a transfer window, he could not sign elsewhere until January.
He made his debut off the bench in the FA Cup at Premier League champions Liverpool last week then started for the first time in the 2-1 home league win over Blackpool on Saturday.
No club have kept fewer clean sheets than Barnsley’s two in the EFL this season, while they have conceded 60 goals in all competitions before reaching the halfway stage in their league campaign.
O’Connell told the Chronicle: “Football works in different ways, you can go through spells where you look like you are going to keep a lot of clean sheets or you might concede the odd goal from a couple of shots.
“A lot of it comes down to wanting to defend for each other, defending as a team. It’s not just the back unit. Everyone needs to keep the ball out of the net. But I don’t think we’re far off.”
O’Connell was joined in the side on Saturday by fellow new signing, goalkeeper Owen Goodman, and his former team-mate Corey O’Keeffe who has returned from a loan at Stockport.
“Owen was great – a great presence and some saves to help us out when we needed it. I know Corey from playing at Rochdale and really enjoyed playing with him. He’s showed from his first few performances back what a player he can be. It’s nice for the team to get some new players in and help freshen everything up.”
O’Connell helped Wrexham to three consecutive promotions from the National League to the Championship, having previously played for Celtic, Bury, Rochdale and Charlton.
Wrexham are owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac and feature in a Disney documentary.
O’Connell said: “I suppose it’s different but the attention on Wrexham wasn’t a huge focus of mine.
“I was there to do my job and help the team win, I never got carried away with everything that goes on.
“At Wrexham, we had momentum with the promotions in a row. You can build momentum by wins and improving every day. The first win here is good and we want to keep building.”
O’Connell came off the bench at Anfield with Liverpool bringing on Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike.
“I was a Liverpool fan growing up so it was a nice moment for my family.
“It was surreal to make my debut there. When I was at Charlton we played Man United at Old Trafford and I came on when they were throwing on a few big boys (Christian Eriksen, Casemiro and Marcus Rashford). It was pretty similar.
“The lads put in a great performance and that gave us a good platform.”
O’Connell says he enjoyed his time out of the game. He said: “People probably think it’s a pretty tough situation.
“It was not ideal but it was good to look after the kids and spend time with family which is something haven’t been able to do since 16 when I moved over. I made a conscious effort to enjoy it and I did. But I was hungry to get back in.”
He added: “I had a few calls from other clubs but Conor (Hourihane) phoned me on the Saturday before Port Vale (the postponed game on January 4). I know him from being from the same part of Ireland. He was the only manager I spoke to then I phoned my agent and said ‘let’s get it done.’”
